Libya: Now couples must show marriage certificates when going out in public in Tripoli

Special Deterrence Force personnel. [Photo: Internet]Amid the ongoing war, lack of security, bad financial and service status in the Libyan capital Tripoli, the Special Deterrence Force (SDF) based in Mitiga Airport has become a religious police arresting any male and female in public together if they are not married and have marriage certificates on them.

Ridiculous as it seems, the SDF has actually started scouring cafes, restaurants and other public places in Tripoli and asking any man and woman, guys and girls who are together in public or in cars to prove they are married, or else they get detained “for immoral behavior.”

This act has sparked outrage in Libya on social media for the sheer ridiculousness of it as many people said that there is no rule that obliges married people to prove they are married to any police department as it is not their business and that there are no couples who pick up with them marriage certificates to a a dinner out.

A number of men and women, who asked to remain anonymous, spoke to Libyan Express and said that this looks like the Salafist Religious Police of Saudi Arabia being used in Libya, adding that after Saudi Arabia ended this kind of behavior, it throw it to Libya via its loyalists in Tripoli; the SDF.

They also said that SDF personnel have been seen entering cafes and restaurants in Hay Al-Andalus, Gergarish and Jraba streets in Tripoli and making any couples sitting together extremely terrified and uncomfortable by forcing them to prove they are married; not engaged or so; they must be married and have marriage certificates.

The question is how come the SDF is making it’s own rules and regulations to be exacted in Tripoli outside the rule of the Government of National Accord authorities and the local rules and regulations of the Ministry of Socila Affairs without being deterred and held accountable by the GNA!